Is Israel a servant? is he a homeborn slave? why is he plundered?

Have you not brought this unto yourself, in that you have forsaken the LORD your God, when he led you by the way?

For from of old I have broken your yoke, and burst your bands; and you said, I will not transgress; when upon every high hill and under every green tree you wander, playing the harlot.

Yet I had planted you a noble vine, wholly a right seed: how then are you turned into the degenerate plant of a wild vine unto me?

How can you say, I am not polluted, I have not gone after Baalim? see your way in the valley, know what you have done: you are a swift dromedary traversing her ways;

As the thief is ashamed when he is found, so is the house of Israel ashamed; they, their kings, their princes, and their priests, and their prophets,

They say, If a man puts away his wife, and she goes from him, and becomes another man's, may he return unto her again? shall not that land be greatly polluted? but you have played the harlot with many lovers; yet return again to me, says the LORD.

Lift up your eyes unto the high places, and see where you have not been lain with. In the ways have you sat for them, as the Arabian in the wilderness; and you have polluted the land with your harlotries and with your wickedness.

Will he reserve his anger forever? will he keep it to the end? Behold, you have spoken and done all the evil things that you could.

The LORD said also unto me in the days of Josiah the king, Have you seen that which backsliding Israel has done? she has gone up upon every high mountain and under every green tree, and there has played the harlot.

But I said, How shall I put you among the children, and give you a pleasant land, a beautiful heritage of the hosts of nations? and I said, You shall call me, My father; and shall not turn away from me.

A voice was heard upon the high places, weeping and supplications of the children of Israel: for they have perverted their way, and they have forgotten the LORD their God.

The lion has come up from his thicket, and the destroyer of the nations is on his way; he has gone forth from his place to make your land desolate; and your cities shall be laid waste, without an inhabitant.

At that time shall it be said to this people and to Jerusalem, A dry wind of the high places blows in the wilderness toward the daughter of my people, not to fan, nor to cleanse,

Behold, he shall come up as clouds, and his chariots shall be as a whirlwind: his horses are swifter than eagles. Woe unto us! for we are ruined.

O Jerusalem, wash your heart from wickedness, that you may be saved. How long shall your vain thoughts lodge within you?

How long shall I see the standard, and hear the sound of the trumpet?

For my people are foolish, they have not known me; they are stupid children, and they have no understanding: they are wise to do evil, but how to do good they have no knowledge.

How shall I pardon you for this? your children have forsaken me, and sworn by them that are no gods: when I had fed them to the full, they then committed adultery, and assembled themselves by troops in the harlots' houses.

They have lied about the LORD, and said, It is not he; neither shall evil come upon us; neither shall we see sword nor famine:

Neither say they in their heart, Let us now fear the LORD our God, who gives rain, both the former and the latter, in its season: he reserves unto us the appointed weeks of the harvest.

For among my people are found wicked men: they lie in wait, as he that sets snares; they set a trap, they catch men.

For thus has the LORD of hosts said, Hew you down trees, and cast a mound against Jerusalem: this is the city to be punished; she is full of oppression in the midst of her.

Cut off your hair, O Jerusalem, and cast it away, and take up a lamentation on high places; for the LORD has rejected and forsaken the generation of his wrath.

And they have built the high places of Topheth, which is in the valley of the son of Hinnom, to burn their sons and their daughters in the fire; which I commanded them not, neither came it into my heart.

Moreover you shall say unto them, Thus says the LORD; Shall they fall, and not rise? shall he turn away, and not return?

How do you say, We are wise, and the law of the LORD is with us? Lo, certainly he made it falsely; the pen of the scribes made it a lie.

Therefore thus says the LORD of hosts, Behold, I will refine them, and test them; for how shall I deal with the daughter of my people?

Their tongue is as an arrow shot out; it speaks deceit: one speaks peaceably to his neighbor with his mouth, but in his heart he lies in wait.

Who is the wise man, that may understand this? and who is he to whom the mouth of the LORD has spoken, that he may declare it, for why is the land perished and is burned up like a wilderness, that none passes through?

For a voice of wailing is heard out of Zion, How are we plundered! we are greatly ashamed, because we have forsaken the land, because our dwellings have cast us out.

But let him that glories glory in this, that he understands and knows me, that I am the LORD who exercises lovingkindness, justice, and righteousness, in the earth: for in these things I delight, says the LORD.

But the LORD is the true God, he is the living God, and an everlasting king: at his wrath the earth shall tremble, and the nations shall not be able to endure his indignation.

He has made the earth by his power, he has established the world by his wisdom, and has stretched out the heavens at his discretion.

When he utters his voice, there is a multitude of waters in the heavens, and he causes the vapors to ascend from the ends of the earth; he makes lightnings with rain, and brings forth the wind out of his storehouses.

The portion of Jacob is not like them: for he is the former of all things; and Israel is the tribe of his inheritance: The LORD of hosts is his name.

The LORD called your name, A green olive tree, fair, and with good fruit: with the noise of a great tumult he has kindled fire upon it, and the branches of it are broken.

How long shall the land mourn, and the herbs of every field wither, for the wickedness of them that dwell in it? the beasts are consumed, and the birds; because they said, He shall not see our latter end.

If you have run with the footmen, and they have wearied you, then how can you contend with horses? and if in the land of peace, in which you trusted, they wearied you, then how will you do in the jungle of the Jordan?

The plunderers have come upon all high places through the wilderness: for the sword of the LORD shall devour from the one end of the land even to the other end of the land: no flesh shall have peace.

Give glory to the LORD your God, before he causes darkness, and before your feet stumble upon the dark mountains, and, while you look for light, he turns it into the shadow of death, and makes it gross darkness.

What will you say when he shall punish you? for you have taught them to be captains, and as chief over you: shall not sorrows take you, as a woman in travail?

And the wild donkeys did stand in the high places, they sniffed at the wind like jackals; their eyes did fail, because there was no grass.

Thus says the LORD unto this people, Thus have they loved to wander, they have not restrained their feet, therefore the LORD does not accept them; he will now remember their iniquity, and punish their sins.

Are there any among the idols of the nations that can cause rain? or can the heavens give showers? are not you he, O LORD our God? therefore we will wait upon you: for you have made all these things.

And I will cause them to be removed into all kingdoms of the earth, because of Manasseh the son of Hezekiah king of Judah, for that which he did in Jerusalem.

For who shall have pity upon you, O Jerusalem? or who shall bemoan you? or who shall go aside to ask how you do?

But, The LORD lives, that brought up the children of Israel from the land of the north, and from all the lands where he had driven them: and I will bring them again into their land that I gave unto their fathers.

While their children remember their altars and their idols poles by the green trees upon the high hills.

O my mountain in the field, I will give your wealth and all your treasures as plunder, and your high places for sin, throughout all your borders.

For he shall be like the shrub in the desert, and shall not see when good comes; but shall inhabit the parched places in the wilderness, in a salt land which is not inhabited.

For he shall be as a tree planted by the waters, and that spreads out its roots by the river, and shall not fear when the heat comes, but its leaf shall be green; and shall not be anxious in the year of drought, neither shall cease from yielding fruit.

As the partridge sits on eggs, and hatches them not; so he that gets riches, and not by right, shall leave them in the midst of his days, and at his end shall be a fool.

A glorious high throne from the beginning is the place of our sanctuary.

Then I went down to the potter's house, and, behold, he worked a work on the wheels.

And the vessel that he made of clay was marred in the hand of the potter: so he made it again another vessel, as seemed good to the potter to make it.

Because my people have forgotten me, they have burned incense to worthless idols, and they have caused them to stumble in their ways from the ancient paths, to walk in pathways, and not on a highway;

They have built also the high places of Baal, to burn their sons with fire for burnt offerings unto Baal, which I commanded not, nor spoke it, neither came it into my mind:

Then came Jeremiah from Topheth, where the LORD had sent him to prophesy; and he stood in the court of the LORD's house; and said to all the people,

Then Pashhur struck Jeremiah the prophet, and put him in the stocks that were in the high gate of Benjamin, which was by the house of the LORD.

For thus says the LORD, Behold, I will make you a terror to yourself, and to all your friends: and they shall fall by the sword of their enemies, and your eyes shall behold it: and I will give all Judah into the hand of the king of Babylon, and he shall carry them captive into Babylon, and shall slay them with the sword.

For I heard the mocking of many, fear on every side. Report, say they, and we will report it. All my friends watched for my fall, saying, Perhaps he will be deceived, and we shall prevail against him, and we shall take our revenge on him.

Sing unto the LORD, praise you the LORD: for he has delivered the soul of the poor from the hand of evildoers.

Because he slew me not from the womb; or that my mother might have been my grave, and her womb to be always great with me.

Inquire, I pray you, of the LORD for us; for Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon makes war against us; if so be that the LORD will deal with us according to all his wondrous works, that he may go up from us.

And afterward, says the LORD, I will deliver Zedekiah king of Judah, and his servants, and the people, and such as are left in this city from the pestilence, from the sword, and from the famine, into the hand of Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, and into the hand of their enemies, and into the hand of those that seek their life: and he shall strike them with the edge of the sword; he shall not spare them, neither have pity, nor have mercy.

He that abides in this city shall die by the sword, and by the famine, and by the pestilence: but he that goes out, and falls to the Chaldeans that besiege you, he shall live, and his life shall be unto him for a prize.

For I have set my face against this city for evil, and not for good, says the LORD: it shall be given into the hand of the king of Babylon, and he shall burn it with fire.

For if you do this thing indeed, then shall there enter in by the gates of this house kings sitting upon the throne of David, riding in chariots and on horses, he, and his servants, and his people.

Weep not for the dead, neither bemoan him: but weep bitterly for him that goes away: for he shall return no more, nor see his native country.

For thus says the LORD concerning Shallum the son of Josiah king of Judah, who reigned instead of Josiah his father, who went forth out of this place; He shall not return here any more:

But he shall die in the place where they have led him captive, and shall see this land no more.

He judged the cause of the poor and needy; then it was well with him: was not this to know me? says the LORD.

He shall be buried with the burial of a donkey, drawn and cast forth beyond the gates of Jerusalem.

O inhabitant of Lebanon, that makes your nest in the cedars, how gracious shall you be when pangs come upon you, the pain as of a woman in travail!

Is this man Coniah a despised broken idol? is he a vessel in which is no pleasure? why are they cast out, he and his descendants, and are cast into a land which they know not?

In his days Judah shall be saved, and Israel shall dwell safely: and this is his name by which he shall be called, THE LORD OUR RIGHTEOUSNESS.

The anger of the LORD shall not return, until he has executed, and till he has performed the thoughts of his heart: in the latter days you shall consider it perfectly.

How long shall this be in the heart of the prophets that prophesy lies? yea, they are prophets of the deceit of their own heart;

The prophet that has a dream, let him tell a dream; and he that has my word, let him speak my word faithfully. What is the chaff to the wheat? says the LORD.

Behold, I am against the prophets, says the LORD, that use their tongues, and say, He says.

Therefore prophesy against them all these words, and say unto them, The LORD shall roar from on high, and utter his voice from his holy habitation; he shall mightily roar upon his habitation; he shall give a shout, as they that tread the grapes, against all the inhabitants of the earth.

A noise shall come even to the ends of the earth; for the LORD has a controversy with the nations, he will plead with all flesh; he will give them that are wicked to the sword, says the LORD.

He has forsaken his lair, like a lion: for their land is desolate because of the fierceness of the oppressor, and because of his fierce anger.

Then spoke the priests and the prophets unto the princes and to all the people, saying, This man is worthy to die; for he has prophesied against this city, as you have heard with your ears.

Therefore now amend your ways and your doings, and obey the voice of the LORD your God; and the LORD will relent concerning the evil that he has pronounced against you.

Then said the princes and all the people unto the priests and to the prophets; This man is not worthy to die: for he has spoken to us in the name of the LORD our God.

Micah the Moresthite prophesied in the days of Hezekiah king of Judah, and spoke to all the people of Judah, saying, Thus says the LORD of hosts; Zion shall be plowed like a field, and Jerusalem shall become heaps of ruins, and the mountain of the house as the high places of a forest.

Did Hezekiah king of Judah and all Judah put him at all to death? did he not fear the LORD, and besought the LORD, and the LORD relented himself of the evil which he had pronounced against them? Thus might we procure great evil against our souls.

And when Jehoiakim the king, with all his mighty men, and all the princes, heard his words, the king sought to put him to death: but when Uriah heard it, he was afraid, and fled, and went into Egypt;

Which Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon took not, when he carried away captive Jeconiah the son of Jehoiakim king of Judah from Jerusalem to Babylon, and all the nobles of Judah and Jerusalem;

Thus says the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel, concerning Ahab the son of Kolaiah, and of Zedekiah the son of Mahseiah, which prophesy a lie unto you in my name; Behold, I will deliver them into the hand of Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon; and he shall slay them before your eyes;

For therefore he sent unto us in Babylon, saying, This captivity is long: build yourselves houses, and dwell in them; and plant gardens, and eat the fruit of them.

Send to all them of the captivity, saying, Thus says the LORD concerning Shemaiah the Nehelamite; Because Shemaiah has prophesied unto you, and I sent him not, and he caused you to trust in a lie:

Therefore thus says the LORD; Behold, I will punish Shemaiah the Nehelamite, and his descendants: he shall not have a man to dwell among this people; neither shall he behold the good that I will do for my people, says the LORD; because he has taught rebellion against the LORD.

Alas! for that day is great, so that none is like it: it is even the time of Jacob's trouble; but he shall be saved out of it.

And their nobles shall be from themselves, and their governor shall proceed from the midst of them; and I will cause him to draw near, and he shall approach unto me: for who is this that devoted his heart to approach unto me? says the LORD.

The fierce anger of the LORD shall not return, until he has done it, and until he has performed the intents of his heart: in the latter days you shall consider it.

Hear the word of the LORD, O you nations, and declare it in the coastlands afar off, and say, He that scattered Israel will gather him, and keep him, as a shepherd does his flock.

For the LORD has redeemed Jacob, and ransomed him from the hand of him that was stronger than he.